Salads & Shrimps

A while back, I had a head of cabbage in the fridge that needed to be used, so I consulted How To Cook Everything Vegetarian and turned it into Wheat Berry Salad with Cabbage and Coarse Mustard. I added celery per Bittman’s suggest and beans for protein, and used less oil than the recipe called for. I really liked this salad but thought the red onions were overpowering; I ended up picking them out of the leftovers. I really need to make more recipes from this cookbook!

Bad picture of a great salad – Caesar Salad with Eggplant Bacon from Appetite for Reduction, topped with broiled blackened tofu. I didn’t have bread to make the croutons, so I toasted some tortilla strips instead. I super duper love this salad! The eggplant bacon is fantastic, and the Cesar Chavez dressing has become my go-to dressing, as I always have the ingredients on hand.

Orange-strawberry salad with fava beans, pea shoots, avocado-lemon-poppy seed dressing and almonds. I had really high hopes for this salad but the dressing was, sadly, just okay.

Onto the shrimps! Seafood was the very last meat I gave up before going vegetarian, and I had a rough time of it. I really liked shrimp and tuna! I haven’t craved seafood for a really long time, but I think it’s fun to eat mock seafoods every once in a while.

Dave wanted some noodle soup one Sunday afternoon, so I made a sort of combination of this recipe and pho. I had a package of vegetarian prawns in the freezer for a long time, so I tossed it into my portion.

The prawns were interesting – the flavor was good, but they were really big and very chewy. Strange, for sure.

What were not strange were these breaded vegan shrimp from Sophie’s Kitchen. Imagine my delight when I spotted an assortment of new vegan seafood in the Whole Foods freezer! I had to try it.

These breaded vegan shrimp are similar to the prawns above in taste and texture, but because they’re smaller they’re less chewy and weird. And, they’re breaded, and, the breading stays on! I really liked these shrimp and will definitely purchase products from Sophie’s Kitchen again.

Lastly, I realized it’s been a long time since I posted any pictures of Jake the handsomest cat, so here you go.

I’m -so- curious about those vegan shrimps! I’ve wanted to try them for years, but not enough to pony up the cash to buy them online, complete with freezer packs and what not. I just hope they’ll be available in a local store some day soon… They sound crazy, and a good way!

Wild stuff, those vegan prawns. They kind of give me the willies. The first two salads sound delicious. I don’t know what I’m waiting for to make the eggplant bacon and caesar dressing, everyone seems to love both.